Examining the Mentoring Experiences of First-Year Teachers in Missouri

Mentoring of early-career teachers is a key strategy used by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MO DESE) to improve teacher retention. To that end, MO DESE needs better information on the features of mentoring that early-career teachers receive and the features that may be related to teacher retention. At the request of MO  DESE, the Regional Educational Laboratory Central conducted a study of the frequency, duration, activities, and topics addressed in the mentoring received by first-year teachers in Missouri who registered for state-delivered teacher induction workshops in the 2022/23 school year. The study also sought to identify which mentoring features were related to teachers’ likelihood of returning to teach in the same school district for a second year, as measured by teacher employment records.